Hi! I was reading thru your Happy Tales and they honestly warmed my heart and I thought you might like to hear about my Charlie. I wish I could list all of the wonderful things about him but taking account for everyday of 14 years of my life would be a very long story. He was a large, black Sheppard/lab mix and my father adopted him from WAHS when we were both 2. He filled my life with a companionship that I don’t think any other dog could have. He was just special. My baby sister once wandered away from my mother and it was discovered that she had crawled across the street and thro the next yard; Charlie never left her side. He never barked; until he was 10 and got tired of sitting around and waiting to be let in. He never left the yard, until my father left for work and my mother would drive around and find him waiting at bus stops with little kids. When my dad did get home he would run to either the coffee table or one of our beds to “hide”. His head was the only part the fit under them and I honestly think he was under the impression that we couldn’t see him. We always gave him one of those big candy canes full of treats for Christmas and when the living room was empty he would take it behind the Christmas tree, neatly remove the lid and snack until we heard him crunching. he loved to cuddle and give kisses. go for walks, go to the park, car rides. The only place we never took Charlie was vacation and when we returned he was so happy he’d pee and then ignore us for a week. He’s been gone for almost 7 years now and it still brings me to tears when I think about him and how it felt to get off the school bus the next day and not see him in the yard.
Since then we’ve adopted 2 other dogs from WAHS. 6 Month old Vanilla, who we called Sophie. My dad and my sister came home with her about a while after we lost Charlie. And a puppy, Henry who we adopted to play with then 1 year old Sophie.
Sophie was so in love with my father that she didn’t like my parents sleeping next to each other. She was a yellow lab, terrier mix, probably weighed 50-ish lbs and preferred to spend most of her time in my dad’s lap. Unfortunately she developed a seizer disorder and passed away when she was 3.
Henry is now 5 years old and at any given moment he will greet you as if you’ve been missing for years, whether you’ve gone on a trip, to the mail box or to the bathroom. When we got him he was very small and was listed as a Staffordshire terrier. He grew into something that looked nothing like a Staffordshire and we were told by an admirer that he was a plot hound, a “very rare and expensive hunting dog from the south”. It doesn’t make much of a difference to us. He’s a Henry. 🙂
The moral of my story is just that WAHS has made a HUGE impact on my family. Although I’ve now moved out of my parents home and vested Henry often, I can’t wait for the day that my boyfriend and I are ready and able to provide for our own canine companion and I know exactly where to find one.
